Withings Activite Pop Review

The Withings Activité’s pop is certainly no Apple Watch or Android wear device, however the Withings offering is certainly a big player in the activity tracking space and does a very good job of it. The accuracy of the tracker is very good and tracks steps very well in a stylist minimalist design, but like other activity trackers it can be skewed.
If you are looking for a activity tracker that is minimalist and does the basics then this for you

Withings Activité in pictures

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Withings Activite Pop review – Intro

Don’t be fooled its the lower price tag: There’s nothing the premium Activité can do that the less expensive Pop can’t. There aren’t any high-end materials here, but the end result is a wearable that looks great, tracks steps with ease and won’t make your wallet weep.

Forget notifications, forget apps, forget all of the noisy little distractions masquerading as help — sometimes a wearable is at its best when it stays out of your way. As it turns out, that’s just what French hardware house Withings had in mind when it built the Activité and Activité Pop. In addition to that, though, these fitness bands have something perhaps even more important going for them: With their round faces and classic dials, they don’t actually look like activity trackers. Indeed, they’re not quite traditional fitness devices, nor are they full-on smartwatches, and I sort of love them for it. Just know that one of them probably isn’t for you.

Withings Activité Pop – Features

Run, Walk, sleep and swimming tracking

8 month battery

Bluetooth 4.0

The Withing’s Activite pop does a good job at tracking a range of activities and it does that really well. However the only criticism I have is you Don’t get any real time feedback like you would with a smart watch and this could a decider with for some.

On the face are standard analog hands as well as a step counter numbered from one to 100, counting progress towards a customizable goal. Inside, the Activité Pop is actually a digital watch powering analog hands, powered by a common CR2025 coin battery which can last up to 8 months.

The Activité Pop is rated as water resistant to 5 ATM (or 50 meters deep) and Withings has updated its firmware to include relatively accurate swim-tracking.

The Withings Healthmate app organises data collected by the Pop, and can break it down by daily, weekly or even hourly activity.

The Activité Pop also features automatic sleep detection for sleep tracking, although with a thicker face than most wristwatches, I did not find it comfortable to wear in bed. Then again, I have worn a watch for more than 10 years and always take it off before bed.

If you do choose to snooze with your watch on, the Activité Pop features a silent, vibrating alarm. One cool feature is that you can double-tap the face, and the hands spin to show the time your alarm is set for. The Activité Pop also changes time zones automatically when it is paired with your smartphone.

Things it can’t do

You might think the Withings Activité Pop is packed with tech considering the price, but it doesn’t have a heart rate monitor and doesn’t measure elevation. These are hardware things which can’t be added but a software update will bring new functionality soon – see below.

If you need to look at the watch in the dark then you’ll need to switch on a light because the Withings Activité Pop doesn’t have a backlight nor is it glow-in-the-dark which is a bit of a shame.

There’s also one other thing to note, although it is pretty niche. If you own a Withings Pulse, you can’t use it at the same time as the Activité Pop. To use both, you’ll have to have a user account for each device.

Withings Activité Pop – Design

Sleek simple design

Comforable rubber band

Analoge display, sorry no touch screen

Withings is a Swiss watchmaker, and one of the first to make the jump from analog timepieces to wearable technology. The company’s first foray, the Withings Activité (£349), offers curved sapphire glass, a Swiss-made case and a French-made calf leather straps.

The Withings Activité Pop (£119) is a lower cost alternative made in China, featuring a plastic cover, coated metal case and rubber straps. Other than its design, the Activité Pop shares little physical characteristics with its Swiss-made precursor.

Despite the relatively cheap materials, the Activité Pop feels nice. While the rubber has a soft texture – much like a Swatch – it makes the Pop stand out when paired with formal clothing. Since it is a common size, the rubber strap can easily be replaced with any standard 18mm band (including leather).

One of the standout design features is the ease to remove straps with a simple click like shown in the picture here

WITHINGS ACTIVITÉ POP – Usability

Good at tracking

Not as advanced as a Fitbit Charge

Good app

The Withings Activité Pop is a sharp-looking piece of wearable tech that does not look as smart as it is. Compared to popular fitness trackers like the Jawbone UP3, the Activité Pop is just as good at tracking, more stylish and arguably more useful – it looks like a nice watch and displays the time.

In terms of activity tracking, the Activité Pop may not be advanced as the Fitbit Charge, but thanks to a fantastic mobile app that organises detailed data and its stylish look, we would highly recommend it as a basic fitness tracker for the fashion-conscious.

The app also reveals that the feature set is not as limited as it first appears. Once you connect via Bluetooth, you can see more than just steps, because the Pop is also recording more intense bursts of, ahem, “activité” in the form of running and swimming (though it’s described as water resistant rather than waterproof).

It makes a decent fist of this too, detecting that I’d used the hotel treadmill for 20 minutes, although as usual with fitness wearables, its calories burned estimate seemed wildly optimistic. And it also seemed to think I’d gone for a bit of a run in the afternoon, which I most certainly hadn’t, so perhaps it’s not quite foolproof.

WITHINGS ACTIVITÉ POP review – Performance

Detailed app

8 Month battery

Swimming tracking

The Activité Pop is by no means a case of style over substance. Yes, it’s the best-looking activity tracker we’ve seen to date, but it backs this up with some of the most accurate, detailed, seamless data capture on the market.

That said, as with too many of its rivals, the Pop’s activity-tracking credentials are far too restricted to basic walking, jogging, running recording. Yes, Withings has promised swim tracking in the near future, but it’s not here yet.

Given that the wearable is wrist based, however, means erroneous recording can be an issue. Wild gesticulation of the hands adds to your steps goal. While clapping along to a gospel choir – yes, really – we added almost 1500 steps to our daily achievements.

Other sure-fire ways to skew your results include simple things such as carrying your shopping or walking with your hand in your pocket. While these can distort the data, we’ve yet to meet a wrist-based activity tracker without similar pitfalls. But as most will point out this is the same with any wrist based activity tracker

withings activité pop review – Value

Good value for the build

Basic activity tracker

Looks expensive without being expensive

Although the Pop is the best value, you can spend £30 more and spring for the Activité Steel, which is the same watch with a polished metal frame and a more neutral color palette. If you really want to spend some bucks, you can opt for the “swiss-made” Activité that’s a more elegant time piece, but it also costs £450. Before you make any expensive watch decisions, though, check out the next guy on this list.

Withings Activité Pop review – Conclusion

The Withings Activité’s pop is certainly no Apple Watch or Android wear the device, however, the Withings offering is certainly a big player in the activity tracking space and does a very good job of it. The accuracy of the tracker is very good and tracks steps very well in a stylist minimalist design, but like other activity trackers it can be skewed.

If you are looking for a activity tracker that is minimalist and does the basics then this for you